Various systems and facilities intake large quantities of water from various exposed natural and other above-ground water sources, such as rivers, lakes, oceans, reservoirs, irrigation and flood water canals, outdoor water parks, other water conveyance structures, and the like. Examples of such systems and facilities include hydroelectric plants, pulp and paper mills, steel mills, petro-chemical plants, municipal water systems and waste water plants, nuclear and other energy facilities that use the water for cooling or for other purposes, other water filtering or screening facilities, etc. In all such systems it is important to screen naturally occurring debris found in the exposed above-ground water source from the flow of water that is taken into and employed by the system or facility. Such debris may include, for example, leaves, branches, and other portions of trees or other plants that have fallen into or grown in the water source, trash, and other debris that has been dumped or otherwise found its way into the exposed above-ground water source, etc. Such debris could cause significant damage to the system or facility obtaining water from the exposed above-ground water source if it were allowed to enter into the system or facility.
Various screening systems are known and used for preventing debris found in exposed above-ground water sources from entering into the systems or facilities described above. For example, fine mesh screening may be used to exclude even small pieces of debris from such systems. Screening systems with larger openings may be used, either alone or in combination with finer screening, to prevent large debris from entering the system or facility taking water from the exposed above-ground water source. Such larger opening screening systems may be used for preventing large debris from reaching finer mesh screening positioned downstream from the larger opening screening. Larger opening screening systems preferably do not dramatically adversely affect the water flow volume provided into the facility or system through the screening system.
An exemplary screening system of this type is known as an intake rack system or trash rack. Intake rack systems typically provide screening using a series of vertically oriented parallel blades separated by spacers and mounted on horizontally oriented rods. The spacing between the blades forming the intake rack is selected to screen debris of the desired size from entering the water intake of the system or facility that the trash rack is protecting, without significantly reducing water flow into the water intake. Such intake racks may be made of metallic or non-metallic materials. Intake racks of this type are available, for example, from Hydro Component Systems, LLC of Watertown, Wis. and covered by U.S. Pat. No. 7,815,811, incorporated herein, in full, by this reference. In a typical application, intake racks of this type may be mounted upstream from the water intake of a hydroelectric or other plant, system or facility that intakes water from a river or other similar exposed above-ground water source. The elongated vertically oriented parallel blades forming the intake rack extend downward into the water to prevent debris floating at the water surface or in the water below the water line from entering the system or facility.
As an intake rack or other screening structure prevents the flow of debris into the water intake of a system or facility from an exposed above-ground water source, the debris being screened will build up on the intake rack or other screening structure. This accumulating debris must be cleared from the intake rack or other screening structure on a regular basis, to prevent the buildup of such debris from interfering with the flow of water into the system or facility water intake.
A typical tool for removing accumulated debris from an intake rack is known as a trash rake. A typical trash rake can include a rake-like structure including tines that are spaced apart so as to fit between the blades of an intake rack to be cleaned. This rake-like structure is positioned adjacent to and drawn vertically along the intake rack blades to remove accumulated debris therefrom.
The debris cleared from the intake rack using such systems typically is dumped onto a deck or conveyor located at the top of the intake rack system to be hauled away to a nearby debris disposal location. Thus, an expensive and/or time consuming secondary system or process must be employed to haul away the debris that has been removed from an intake rack using such current systems. Current trash rake systems do not allow an operator under all operating conditions simply, easily, and effectively under full power to position a trash rake adjacent to an intake rack to be cleaned, especially if the disposed site is at an angle relative to the intake rake, and then to carry the removed debris to a desired disposal location adjacent to the intake rack without the use of a secondary system or process.